Developer Supercell is accepting applications worldwide for Hello World Open; contest held to promote Finland’s game development scene

Supercell, the team who made the insanely successful mobile game Clash of Clans, is now taking the initiative to help out the gaming community in its Finnish homeland.

Together with local technology company Reaktor, the developer announced the Hello World Open contest that’s accepting participants from all over the world. The contest is focused on artificial intelligence coding: teams of up to three people have to compete by programming an A.I that will race a virtual car against other A.Is.

The time limit for coding is from April 15 to April 29. The racing contest starts from May 6 to May 8 and is divided into three qualifying rounds to determine the six finalist teams. They will then compete in the championship finals to be held in Helsinki, Finland on June 5, 2014, to determine the team with the fastest racing A.I. The prize pool for the finals is worth around US$13,000.

The reason for the team-up and contest is to promote Finland’s game development scene as well as give back to its community of gamers in the region. At this point in time, interested programmers have less than four days left to sign up before the compant stops accepting signups. The contest is free to enter; more details can be found on the official site.

It’ll be interesting to see how this all pans out, as Supercell and Reaktor’s contest here is a different kind of game jam. Participants aren’t exactly making a game per se, but an A.I that can be applied in games as well as other technological medium.